Dolan headed the Milwaukee archdiocese from 2002 to 2009, before being named to the New York position. During his term here, archdiocesan officials sought to reach financial settlements with people who had been sexually abused by priests over the years, but those talks weren’t successful. In January 2011, Dolan’s Milwaukee successor, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, announced the archdiocese was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because the financial claims against it “exceed our means.”

The church put a happier spin on it though.

Joseph Zwilling, communications director for the New York Archdiocese, released this statement Wednesday:

“Today Cardinal Dolan had the long-awaited opportunity to talk about his decision nine years ago in Milwaukee to publicize the names of priests who had abused children and how he responded to the tragedy of past clergy sexual abuse of minors during the time he was privileged to serve as Archbishop of Milwaukee.

“He has indicated over the past two years that he was eager to cooperate in whatever way he could, and he was looking forward to talking about the good work and progress that took place to ensure the protection of children and pastoral outreach to victims.”

the archdiocese was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because the financial claims against it “exceed our means.”

You know, if it were the average person involved in a lawsuit, even over something that didn’t involve intent to harm another, it wouldn’t matter. There may be a settlement, or the plaintiff may be awarded a sum which caused the liquidation of all assets, so that the defendant may be left to die homeless on the streets without a second thought from anyone. It’s something that I think is wrong, even if the plaintiff deserves and needs that compensation. But I wouldn’t mind it happening to the Church.

the archdiocese was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because the financial claims against it “exceed our means.”

I wasn’t aware that mothership Vatican was that skint. Or, despite contolling their every move, do they get to deny fiscal responsibility for their sattelite spaceships churches when shit and fan meet?

It will be very interesting to see the financial breakdown of the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s assets. Bankruptcy law is pretty complex and IANAL, but I suspect the reason the archdiocese is doing this because they think they can minimise their legal (and I would argue moral) obligations.

I expect that the archdiocese is about to be treated like a shell company; they declare bankruptcy, their own auditors find the archdiocese has almost zero assets to liquidate (“you can take the coffee machine if you like”), all the valuables will turn out to belong to the church, not the archdiocese, and there will be Catholic priests giving sermons in the Milwaukee cathedral (Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist to be precise) before, during, and after the bankruptcy. The cathedral itself will be exempt under bankruptcy laws as it is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the appointed auditors will fail to explain how a pauper like the archdiocese was able to pay for a $4.5 million renovation project in 2001/2.